Wanderlust World Wanderlust World Situated 30 minutes south of Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam is located across the Colorado River in Black Canyon at the Arizona-Nevada border.
One of the major dams constructed on the Colorado River, the Hoover Dam controls the flow of the Colorado River, allotting water to be used by nearby cities and towns and preventing floods. The massive dam provides hydroelectric power, reservoirs such as Lake Mead and a habitat for fish and wildlife.
Built during the Great Depression, the Hoover Dam was constructed to control the waters of the Colorado River. The dam took 7 years to complete, employing 21,000 workers. It was finished in 1935.
Upon its completion, the Hoover Dam, at 726.4 feet, was the tallest dam in the world and largest single-site producer of hydroelectric power until 1948, when the Grand Coulee Damn over the Columbia River was completed.
The art deco-styled Hoover Dam is composed entirely out of concrete. More than 5 million barrels of cement and 4.5 cubic yards of aggregate make up the dam.